


Just Needing a Little Help

by LegacyWorks



Series: Never Yeilding [3]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Dysphoria, Ficlet, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Just a cute thing between Mai and Ty Lee, also dysphoria if you know what you're looking for, but shhh they don't know that in the main fic, only mildly, reference to Azula as a gremlin child, strict parents mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-15 23:16:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29691444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LegacyWorks/pseuds/LegacyWorks
Summary: Mai asks Ty Lee what was wrong. She doesn't really get an answer, but that's okay.
Relationships: Azula & Mai & Ty Lee, Mai & Ty Lee (Avatar), Ty Lee & the Ty sisters
Series: Never Yeilding [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2169165
Kudos: 8





	Just Needing a Little Help

“What happened back there?” Mai’s hand stays as a steady grip on Ty Lee’s shoulder. Azula was probably wreaking havoc in the store, if the loud  _ crash _ was anything to go by. Or the shopkeeper’s scream that followed. Mai held in a sigh. Azula can go overboard so easily.

“It’s nothing, I’m fine.” Ty Lee brushes away from Mai and walks a little further from the shop before turning to wait for Azula. The princess ducks her head out of the small shop, already talking with her guards. “Come on, we’re going to be late.” Mai’s stare follows her, but she doesn’t say anything else.

The walk back is quiet.

Mai walks right beside Ty Lee, hand coming up to hover whenever Ty Lee starts to falter and shake. It goes back down every time, though. Ty Lee doesn’t seem to notice, thankfully, and Azula barely pays either of them any mind.

Once they reach the gates, Azula shoves a few items into Mai and Ty Lee’s hands. Dried spike fruit.

“What are you doing?” Mai asks, voice sharp. She glances around before turning wide eyes back on Azula.

“Bring them in for me,” Azula says, flippantly. Ugh. Truly not a care in the world, unminding of the chaos she puts Mai through on a daily basis. Or enjoying it without expression. Mai thinks it’s more likely the second one, and it frustrates her to no end.

“We can’t! It’s against the rules.” And Mai’s read through the rules more than enough times to pinpoint exactly where it was in the book. “No outside food may enter the premise of the Academy without explicit permission from a staff member”, section 5d.

“Ah, but I already told you! Rules don’t matter!” Azula’s grin goes sharp, but not sharp enough for Mai to risk getting expelled or for word to get back to Ma that she broke the rules. Azula doesn’t have to deal with that, they’d never expel the Princess.

“Then you do it!” Mai’s eyebrows pinch together, but she doesn't shove the fruit forward again. The guards are already closer than before. Another thing she isn’t going to risk.

“What? No way, I’m a princess. I can’t be a bad role model, don’t you know people should follow the rules? Come on, Mai.” Mai stifles a growl.

Ty Lee just shifted her pieces into her sleeves and pockets, sending a blinding smile at Azula. “Don’t worry, Princess! We got this!” 

Mai rolled her eyes, since it was at least better than actually growling at the freaking Princess of the Fire Nation who happens to have guards shadowing at her every step.

“Fine.”

There isn’t anyone to check them at the gated entrance. 

It’s still a long and nerve wracking trip across the open ground where there wasn’t anywhere to hide if someone did show up.

Mai waits until they get inside before shoving her hands back into her pockets. The fruit made her stilettos all sticky, but at least she wasn't in trouble. Yanking each piece out one at a time, she gathered them all in her palm and presented it to Azula.

Who proceed to walk away.

“What, you aren’t taking them?” Mai’s voice echoed despite her trying to stay quiet enough to avoid drawing attention. Maybe she was a tad too loud, but really? Azula’s just leaving? She wanted the fruit!

“What? No, that would be gross. I got those from a stall. Plus you put them in your pockets, which is just no. See you in class tomorrow.”

And she was gone.

Mai sighed, loosening her posture now that the Princess was out of sight and her guards disappeared after her. 

“Isn’t she so sweet?” Ty Lee, the poor fool, said at Mai’s side.

“That’s a word.”

“But look! She bought us this! And we didn’t even have to ask!”

“Yeah. Sure.”

“Aaah, I’m gonna go share this with everyone! They’ll be so excited! Come on, come on! You can join us! It’ll be fun!” Mai sighed again and let her hyperactive friend lead the way.

….

“Mai? Can I, um… talk to you?” Ty Lee is standing outside her dorm room door, shuffling her feet and looking at the ground. After she knocked the softest possible knock that’s ever been knocked.

“Yeah, sure. Come on in.” Mai says, like this is perfectly normal and she’s not internally freaking out that Ty Lee is acting so weird.

Ty Lee. Shy.  _ Quiet _ .

Mai leads them to her bed, letting Ty Lee sit first before pulling up a chair and sitting there instead. People aren’t supposed to come into her room. Even if it’s Ty Lee, it’s still  _ her room _ . Ma would be appalled. 

Ty Lee crumples the bed sheets in her hands, tightening and releasing. Over and over. She’s still messing with her feet, still looking anywhere that isn’t Mai.

“I like your room,” she starts before falling silent again.

“Thanks.” Yep Great conversation. High quality, 10 out of 10. Talking about her room and the bed and just sitting in absolute silence. Breathing. And looking. And not looking because Ty Lee won’t meet her eyes. This is going just swell, not awkward at all. Why the heck hasn’t Ty Lee said anything? “What’s going on?” Mai says instead.

Awkward silence is too annoying to let sit.

“I was just. Um. Thinking. About the other day.”

So much has happened since befriending Azula, Mai doesn’t know what ‘other day’ Ty Lee is talking about. It must show on her face, since Ty Lee says “At the shop. With the mirror.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

And again with the waiting. 

“What about it?” Ty Lee looks up, eyebrows scrunched, mouth just faintly starting to open. Mai scrambles to clarify. “I mean, what exactly about it?”

“Um. Just the. You know.” Well this is going nowhere. “Thanks for, well. Not saying anything?”

“There wasn’t anything to say,” which is true, because Mai was confused and concerned. Not something she would tell anyone on the pain of death, even if it was Azula who asked. Weakness, and all that. Plus, who would she tell?

Ty Lee’s hands scrunch up again.

“It’s just that. Well. Sometimes it’s hard.” Ah, she’s continuing. That’s, uh, good? 

“What’s hard?”

“Um. I… don’t know exactly? Just. Everything? Me?”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah…”

This time Ty Lee brings her hand up to bite at her finger, passively nibbling. She probably doesn't know she’s doing it.

“Your mom’s rough on you, right?” Ty Lee’s mouth is moving, but she doesn’t look like she’s in the room. “I mean, you’re like, the perfect lady. Don’t you ever wish you weren’t?”

“I mean, not really? I’m just me.”

“Right… Yeah, um. That makes sense.” Ty Lee starts to get up, nibbling at her lip and glancing at the door.

“But my dad, well.” Ty Lee pauses and finally looks Mai in the eye. Mai keeps talking. “He has some high expectations. About who I should be, and who I should talk to.” Ty Lee’s eyes now burn into Mai’s and she’s firmly planted back on the bed. She isn’t moving to say anything, though. Perfectly content to let Mai go first, share all her dirty little secrets and the burning feelings.

Too bad that was all Mai really had. No other secrets, no other grievances. She honestly lives a pretty easy life.

“It can be a lot, you know?” Mai lies through her teeth. It’s annoying, but nothing that she ever found hard or went out of her way to do. Azula pulled her into the fold, she barely had to do anything about it and her dad was happy. “The expectations.”

Other girls in their classes complain about that. So maybe that’s what Ty Lee is going for?

“Yeah,” she’s soft, her voice wet. “Yeah, it’s a lot. Mom just. She wants so much. Be like your sisters! Don’t climb that tree! Oh, Ty Lee, go put on your dress, it looks better. Ty Lee, cover up, your sleeves are too short. There’s just. A lot.”

“Yeah?” Thank Agni Ty Lee’s actually talking. Mai was running out of things to say.

“She, uh. She likes that we’re a perfect set of daughters. But that isn’t right, and I don’t know how to say that? Or what to do? I mean, what does that even mean? That we act the same? Look the same? Think the same? Because we don’t, it’s just that people don’t look hard enough!”

“Then uh, why do you guys still dress the same?” Mai kinda wishes she shut her mouth, but she’s  _ curious _ .

“It’s safer.” What.

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing...” Mai stares at her, deliberately lifting an eyebrow as Ty Lee looks anywhere but Mai.

“That nothing sounds like something.”

“I just. I don’t know! Sometimes things are just off and if I ignore it it’s more okay? It’s the same for some of my siblings. I just look off sometimes, and my siblings think they’re off, and sometimes A-Lao and A-Lat don’t like stuff, like they really don’t like stuff, but then Mom gets upset so it’s just. Safer. To be the same.”

And that isn’t something Mai knows how to respond to. Her clothes look off sometimes. Maybe it’s like that? But why would it be safer?

They sit in silence for a while, yet again.

“Y’know,” Ty Lee starts, this time a bit more force behind her voice. ”I never played with anyone who wasn’t one of my siblings before coming here?”

“Wait, really?” Even Mai played with other people when she was a kid! She stopped that as soon as possible, but it did technically happen. Her ma insisted, and her dad wanted to make more connections. 

“Yep. Just me and my siblings. Mom didn’t want us around boys, and said that the other girls weren’t good enough. That we were destined for something greater. We tried to sneak out a few times, and I managed to play with the boys around the village a couple times, but Mom was really mad when she found out. Said it wasn’t appropriate.”

“That’s dumb.”

“Heh, yeah. It is. They were fun to play with, too. We chased the others around with snake crickets. Ty Lin, uh, didn’t like that. She pushed me into the water whenever she could, and then we would go back home and try and convince Mom that A-Woo dumped a bucket of water on us, since there wasn’t a pond or anything on our land.”

“Did it work?”

“Huh?”

“Did you convince her? That Ty Woo did that.”

“Oh, sometimes. A-Woo, well, she got into trouble a lot when we were little. I think she liked getting yelled at, since Mom wouldn’t yell at the rest of us. We didn’t like getting caught, but A-Woo loved it.”

“Your siblings are weird.”

“Yeah,” Ty Lee says, voice dreamy. “I know.”

“I think I would hate having siblings.”

“Nah, not possible. I can’t imagine being without them. You’d have fun, if you had them. Oh! You could be my sister, too! And then you can have a ton of siblings! We could bring Azula, too, even though she already has her brother. I bet she’d love it!”

“She’d hate it.” Ty Lee sticks her tongue out at Mai before falling into a giggling puddle.


End file.
